In Miami, Tsunoda hopes to capitalize on 'best race of his F1 career'

There is necessarily a little symbolism in the fact of having seen Yuki tsunoda sign his best result of the season at Imola (7th), two weeks ago, on a track which nevertheless caused him a lot of harm last year. Arrived in F1 wound up like a clock, the Japanese of the team Alpha Tauri had posted his car at the same time as his confidence in the wall in Italy, during qualifying. An incident which made him lose control and which weighed down his entire last year, up to a superb 4th place obtained in Abu Dhabi during the last race of the year. 

Tsunoda piano piano

Starting 12th during the Grand Prix two weeks ago in Emilia-Romagna, the Japanese made a superb comeback to finish 7th, which earned him his second entry into the points this year. “It was a great race, he said at a press conference in Miami. It was above all a good return compared to our qualification during which we struggled quite a bit (16e). I was able to gain positions session by session, so in the end, this 7th place and scoring points made me very happy. I would say it was my best race in F1, but obviously I need to score points more often to achieve our goals. The performance I had at Imola was very good, so there’s no reason why it shouldn’t be the case here.”

Asked about his ambitions to become the fourth Japanese driver in history to achieve a podium, or even the first to win a victory, Yuki prefers not to put the cart before the horse, a wise lesson learned from his year 2021 approached with oversized objectives . “At the moment, I’m not thinking about all that. I am focused on the current situation, on the development of the car, and trying to score as many points as possible. Afterwards, if I have an opportunity for a podium, I will do everything to take advantage of it! That would be great...but I can't think of it. Last year, in the first part of the season, I set myself very high goals. I wanted to aim for podiums and lots of other great things, but it was too much and it led me to make mistakes. So I’m not trying to aim for podiums specifically. I'm just taking advantage of the current situation by trying to score as much as possible. But it’s clear that getting on the podium would be great. » 

In any case, Nippon seems to have clearly reached a milestone at the start of the year. Surprisingly, he is currently even ahead of his teammate Pierre Gasly in the drivers' championship by four small points (10 against 6). In Miami, it will be a question of moving on. 

ALSO READ > Yuki Tsunoda, one year later